Reawakening
by GothRiotGrrrl
Summary: I know it's been done before, but I've decided to write out my own little version of season 4. This is the first chapter of the first episode, I have about 20 eps planned. Hope you enjoy! Disclaimer: I do not Forever Knight, and I make no profit off this story, only ego boosts.
1. Chapter 1

The first thing Vachon noticed was the dirt in his mouth and nostrils.

 _I'm buried. How did I get buried?_

Fuzzy thoughts and memories that weren't his filled Vachon's head, a blond child being brought across, slaughtering innocent people, anger, hatred, it consumed him.

 _The stake, Tracy took out the stake!_

Panic started to set in, Vachon was still alive, still being driven mad and on top of it all he was buried far deeper than he had ever been before.

 _Why did she take the stake out? Dammit Trace!_

As his thoughts centered on Tracy, Vachon realized something, he could push the other vampires thoughts and memories away. It wasn't easy, but he could do it. This gave him some hope, being unconscious for so long may have been exactly what he needed to heal.

 _No, that's not it. Something else happened._

Pushing his own consciousness further to the surface, Vachon realized the other vampire's link was broken, whoever she was, she had been killed and with her had died the evil that had consumed him.

He was still injured though, but nothing a few bottles of blood wouldn't heal. Her memories were another story, they would haunt him forever, but at least they weren't overpowering.

Extending his senses Vachon felt for the sun, it was low in the western sky and would set within an hour. About enough time to dig himself out.

When he got back to the church, the first thing Vachon did was find his wrist watch and check the date. It was March 2nd, he had been buried and thought dead for over two months. Urs was dead, he had known that as soon as he was free from his grave. Screed and then Urs, and Bourbon was somewhere in Europe. For the first time in centuries, Vachon felt truly alone.

He sat down on the stone steps in the basement and pulled a bottle of blood from the one of the crates next to him. It was stale and had lost most of the flavor of the person it had come from, but it would heal his wounds and that was all that mattered.

Throwing his head back, Vachon finished the bottle quickly and reached into the crate for another and instead found a wooden stake. Pulling it out of the box, he examined it, his dried blood caked on the point.

 _Tracy must have put there after she pulled it out, she probably didn't want to look at it._

He could see Tracy doing that,not wanting to bury him with the stake still in, she probably wanted to give him some dignity in death. Vachon smirked at that thought, there was no such thing as dignity in death, he had seen enough people die to know that. But Tracy's mortal ideals had saved his life.

Tracy Vetter had had a terrible night, her partner had left her in the car to call for back-up while he had gone ahead to catch the perp. Nick did that a lot, running off to do the real work and leaving Tracy safe with reports. She was getting sick of it. Of course, it didn't help that today would've been exactly ten months since she had met Vachon, if he hadn't left without telling her that is. Not only had him leaving hurt more than she thought possible, but she had been getting terrible migraines every time she thought of him. Walking into her apartment, Tracy slammed the door and threw her keys down on the counter. It was then that she realized the lights in her apartment were on. She instinctively reached for her gun, someone was in her apartment with her and she wasn't going to let them get away with breaking into a cops home.

"Are you gonna say freeze?" a familiar voice called

Tracy whirled around, standing in the doorway of her bedroom was Javier Vachon, his long dark hair a mass of frizzy waves, his leather jacket had a slight coating of dirt and a small holes was in the chest of his shirt. He looked like hell, but all that mattered to Tracy was that he was there. Setting her gun down, she walked over and hugged him. They stood there for a few moments just holding each other, Tracy glad to have him back and Vachon glad to have someone left period. Pulling away from the embrace, Tracy stepped back and slapped Vachon across the face.

"What the hell was that for?" He demanded

"Are you serious?" Tracy snapped back, her voice filled with hurt and rage "You leave without so much as a 'Hey, it's been nice knowing you.' and you actually have the audacity to ask me that?"

"Leave? I didn't leave!"

"Oh really, then where have you been?"

Studying Tracy's face, Vachon realized she was serious, she had really though he'd just moved on.

It could only mean that someone had tampered with her memories. Tracy was a resistor and sensitive one at that, removing him completely from her memory would've been nearly impossible, but tweaking a few of those memories was different. What he was worried about was what they had to do to get her to be that complacent.

"If you had let me finish," Vachon said, trying to think up something convincing " I was going to say I didn't leave permanently. I was coming back."

"And you couldn't have told me that?" Tracy said, her arms crossed over chest.

"No, Trace listen, there was a very old and powerful vampire loose and she was killing us off. I got away from her but I've been hiding out and healing ever since."

 _Not really a lie, just omitted truth._

Tracy's expression softened, and she put her arms down at her side.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was hiding out in the woods Trace" he said, a half smile playing on his lips "Not exactly a lot of phones out there."

Tracy smiled at his joke and hugged him again.

"I'm sorry I hit you." She said

"It's alright, I'm sure I'll do something in the future to deserve it."

Nick Knight walked into his loft, he had gotten off early tonight and couldn't be more thrilled. He had been very hungry lately and being around all the blood involved in a crime scene didn't help. Walking over to his fridge, he pulled out a bottle of cow's blood, pulled the cork out with his teeth, blindly spat it across the room and sat down on his leather couch to enjoy his dinner. It took almost half the bottle but the hunger in Nick finally started to subside.

Leaning back, he let out an exasperated sigh, it had been a long week. Tracy was giving him more and more flak about running off and leaving her behind to do the grunt work while he did the actual police work. Life had been so much easier with Schanke, all Nick had to do was occasionally throw Schanke a bone of glory and he was happy to be in the background. It didn't help that Tracy was a resistor and Schanke had been easy to hypnotize. Anytime Nick's former partner had caught him doing something that wasn't humanly possible he would just tell him to forget and he would.

 _And occasionally wash the car too._

A pang of guilt hit Nick, he had very often taken advantage of his former partners human weaknesses. But what bothered him more was his desire for his current partner to be that weak-willed. Lacroix had found a way though and Nick had always wanted to ask exactly how he had done it, but decided against having that particular temptation.

Ignoring those thoughts, Nick reached over and hit the button on his answering machine.

"You have one new message: Knight! It's Vachon. Look I know you're surprised to hear from me, but we need to talk about Tracy. Meet me at the Raven, I need to get some things settled with Lacroix."

Playing the message back, Nick tried to figure out who had really called him, it sounded like Vachon, but it could have been a trick. What made him more suspicious was that the message told him to go to Lacroix. In his eight centuries, this had happened to him more than once. But his master had agreed to let him live his life without interfering, Nick knew it could be real, he just didn't know how.

Lucien Lacroix was surrounded by paperwork and file folders and looked as if he would rather walk out into the sun than go through them. His old friend Aristotle sat next to him, typing away on his laptop, trying to get everything done as quickly as possible. The offending papers were specifics on all the vampires Divia had killed, the mess needed to be cleaned up.

After her two night rampage, Divia had killed over forty of the younger vampires in the city. Masters, children or siblings needed to be contacted, bank accounts and properties had to be transferred and severed community connections needed to be reestablished . Until this was done, Lacroix was not allowed to move on.

"All right," Aristotle said "who's next?"

Lacroix picked up the next file and handed it to his friend.

"Ursula Comstock," he said looking it over, " one hundred twenty-five years old. Master is Javier Vachon. Why does that name sound so familiar?"

"He is also one of the deceased." Lacroix said, frustration filling his voice.

"Oh, well hand me his file then, we can get them both done at once and move onto the next."

Lacroix started going through the large pile, it was in alphabetical order which meant Vachon's was somewhere near the bottom, he hoped. Many of the vampires they had processed were either under their current aliases or their original names, unfortunately the paperwork didn't say which it was so locating the proper files or even explaining to their master who had died was a much more difficult task then it needed to be.

 _Of course, if the rest of community kept better track of their children, as I do, this task would not be so daunting._

Finding the file near the top in the J's, (due to the fact that his first and last names were mistakenly inverted) Lacroix handed it to Aristotle, stood up and walked to the bar for a drink.

"Come now Lucius," Aristotle said, using his mortal name "this can't really be bothering you that much. We should be done with all this paperwork in the next three to four months and then it should only take a few years at the most to properly reestablish the community. And what's a few years for those as old as us?"

Lacroix said nothing, he instead pulled a bottle out from behind the bar and filled two glasses with it.

"Thank you" Aristotle said, accepting the glass from Lacroix when he returned to the table, "so, It looks like Vachon's master was killed centuries ago, though her name isn't listed here."

"I doubt you would find it anywhere, apparently he was brought across by some native vampire in South America, she also did so to one of his bitter enemies making them twins. She killed herself the very next day by walking into the sun. She must have had quite the flare for theatrics, bringing across two mortal enemies and then leaving them to each other for the rest of eternity."

"Wait," Aristotle exclaimed, "I know this vampire, we crossed paths with him, what was it fifteen ninety-nine, sixteen hundred? Anyway, he was killing women all over London and not bothering to cover it up. He was so used to leaving his victims to rot in the jungle. I'm surprised he lasted five hundred years. Didn't he have a carouche child?"

"Yes, but he was killed when the sickness struck the community. And I believe his twin was killed in one of the bombings last summer."

"Well, that's a dying family tree. Oh wait, it seems he has one living child, Francois Bourbon, lives in Stockholm. Well I guess we'd better give him a call and inform him that Vachon's, Urs's and Screed's properties and finances are now all his."

"Actually" a low voice said, "I'd prefer if you didn't."

An amused look crossed Lacroix's face, Vachon was standing at the bar, drinking from the bottle that had been left sitting there.

"So you weren't dead when your mortal friend buried you?" Lacroix said, enjoying the irony of burying a vampire alive.

"Mortal friend?" Aristotle said

"Don't worry" Lacroix assured "I've already taken care of it."

"Yes," Vachon said as he took a swig from the bottle and then wiped his lips off out of habit "You did, what I want to know is why? Tracy thinking me dead would've kept her away from the community, thinking I had left would only make her look for me."

"Yes well, you'll have to take that up with Nicholas, he's the one who made that request."

Lacroix turned his head in time to see Nick land at the bottom of the steps to the bar.

"Well" Lacroix said " 'Speak of the devil' I believe is the appropriate term here."

"So you are alive." Nick said when he saw Vachon "But I saw you dead in Tracy's arms."

Vachon shrugged.

"She took the stake out," he replied nonchalantly

" Stake? I thought Divia attacked you?"

"Was that her name? Yeah, she attacked me, but she didn't kill me."

Nick looked confused, he wanted to know the rest, but Vachon decided to leave him hanging for a few minutes as he retrieved a glass, poured himself a drink, threw it back and then poured another.

"After her attack," Vachon continued as he sipped his new glass of blood, "I made my way back home, and proceeded to slowly go insane from her memories and thoughts."

"So how did Tracy stake you then?"

"She showed-up, said I called her, I don't remember doing it but I wasn't exactly of sound mind at the time. I realized the injuries were going to kill me and asked Tracy to stake me."

"But she pulled it out before it finished killing you." Nick finished

Vachon nodded, finished his glass, set it down on the bar and walked over to the table Aristotle and Lacroix were sitting at.

"So you can mark me as 'Alive' in the community database" he said to them." Or at least the equivalent of."

Aristotle shrugged, and made the necessary adjustments in his hard and computer file.

"What I don't get Knight" Vachon said, his voice becoming serious " is how you could give Tracy to Lacroix to violate."

"Violate? All he did was adjust her memories. You've tried to do it."

"And failed, Tracy is a resistor and there aren't many ways of dealing with them. But what Lacroix would've had to do was something I thought you were above letting happen."

A look of confusion crossed Nick's face.

"What are you talking about?" he said "Lacroix what does he mean?"

Vachon stared at Nick in disbelief.

"You really don't know?"

"Nicholas is not an active member of the community," Lacroix pointed out "he doesn't keep up with the new methods."

"Methods?" Nick snapped "What methods!"

Vachon shook his head, he couldn't believe Knight really didn't know.

"The only way," he said "to ensure a resistor is completely under your control is to cause there mind to go blank."

" 'Blank?' How would you ensure that?"

Vachon looked at Lacroix for help.

"Physical pleasure Nicholas."


	2. Chapter 2

"What do you mean 'physical pleasure'?" Nick stared at Lacroix in disbelief, had he really just said what Nick thought he said.

"Isn't it obvious Knight?" Vachon snapped "It means he had sex with Tracy, because you asked him to!"

"That's impossible, Tracy is still alive you couldn't have had sex with her Lacroix."

"Nicholas," Lacroix said "do you really think after two thousand years I would not be able to control myself? Unlike you, I am completely accepting of what I am. This acceptance gave me the ability to learn control. Tell me Nicholas did you ever stop lamenting over your lost humanity long enough to actually listen to any to any of the lessons I tried so hard to teach you?"

Nick glared at Lacroix, he was in no mood to berated. He wanted answers.

"What exactly happened Lacroix?" Nick demanded.

 _Tracy walked into her apartment, her stylish shoes and trench coat were covered with frozen dirt that would soon melt into mud. She threw her coat to the side, not caring where it landed and walked towards the bathroom. She wanted the filth off her skin, out from beneath her fingernails and washed from her hair. But a part of her didn't, she knew once it was gone, Vachon would be too. The proof of his existence and death would flow down the drain and then she would be alone. Tracy stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, her face was smeared with dirt and tears. The tears, a reminder that Vachon was gone, was more than she could handle so she opted to shower. She would wash everything about him away in hopes the pain would go with it. And the water would hide her tears, so she wouldn't have to admit she was crying._

 _Tracy stepped out of the shower, dried her body and hair with a towel and put on her fluffy white bathrobe. It felt good against her sore muscles and she needed to feel good right now. As she was combing her hair the doorbell rang. It was well after three a.m. so she had no idea who it could be, other than Vachon. He was the only one who would show up this late. But it wasn't him, it would never be him again._

 _Who was at her door surprised as much as Vachon being there would have; on the other side of her door was Lucien Lacroix, the main suspect in her current case._

" _Can I help you Mr. Lacroix?" She asked_

 _He smiled at her, which made her very uneasy. Smiling seemed to be unnatural when he did it._

" _I was hoping to discuss the unfortunate events of yesterday evening with you Detective Vetter." He said_

" _Perhaps over a glass of wine?"_

 _Tracy nearly slammed the door in his face, she was in no mood for this. But if he was offering her information and she pissed him off she would regret it later._

" _, I appreciate the offer, but nothing you tell me outside of the station is official. Now if you would like to come down tomorrow and give another statement, I would be happy to help you."_

 _She tried her best to smile and be pleasant as she said these things, she really did want any additional information he could give and any other time she may have taken him up on his offer. (Assuming she was armed.) But not tonight, not after burying the man she loved. (In freezing temperatures.)_

" _I understand that Detective, but after the grizzly events of last night, I'm not sure how comfortable I would be. That is why I wanted to come and talk to you first. I'm not armed,… feel free to check if you don't believe me."_

 _As he spoke, Tracy felt compelled to believe him. She knew he was probably the killer, but for some reason she wanted to believe every word he said. She quickly shook those thoughts from her mind._

" _I'm sorry ," she said as she shook her head and cleared the fog that was trying to settle on her mind "But letting a murder suspect into my home in the middle of the night is just not a good idea. Please leave."_

 _She started to close the door, but Lacroix put his hand on it and pushed it open._

" _This is very important Detective," he said, as he once again caught her gaze "This is something that needs to be done now."_

 _Tracy tried to fight him but she was sore, exhausted and upset over Vachon's death. She didn't have the energy, (emotional or otherwise) to fight him. She was vulnerable in this state and Lacroix took full advantage of it. She stepped back and let him in._

"Wait Lacroix," Nick interrupted, "If you could get her to let you in why couldn't you make her forget?"

"Because Nicholas,"Lacroix replied in an annoyed tone "you neglected to tell me that she not only loved the the reckless Iberian, but also blamed herself for his death. She was so stubborn in her guilt, she reminded me of you. "

"But you brought alcohol." Vachon pointed out "Wasn't that enough?"

Lacroix smirked.

"Enough to get into her bed, but no further."

Vachon's eyes darkened, he knew Lacroix was purposefully egging him on. He would never fight Lacroix, he wasn't strong enough, Lacroix knew that and took advantage.

"So how exactly did you make her forget?" Nick pressed

 _Lacroix pulled his head back, trying to capture Tracy's eyes as she writhed underneath him. Under less pressing circumstances, he would let her pleasure take over and sweeten her blood, but this was not a dinner date. He led her face to his and kissed her, she was close and he needed to time it right. Tracy arched her back and yelled out in pleasure just as Lacroix looked her in the eyes. Her body went slack and her face became blank, she would do whatever he told her._

 _"Detective, Vachon did not die, he left. It became too difficult for him to continue living here after the death of his rat sucking friend. He is gone and he will not be coming back, ever."_

 _Tracy stared at him for a minute, her eyes became glistened with unshed tears. Then she blinked and looked away, coming back to herself. Lacroix started to get up and leave before it became annoying and she became awkward, but before he could, Tracy grabbed his arms, rolled over on top of LAcroix and pinned him to the bed. She moved on top of him, hard and fast. Lacroix gritted his teeth as she once again neared climax. There was no purpose to distract him now and the sweetened scent of her blood was getting to him. Tracy leaned back and closed her eyes, her hand traveled in between her legs. She gasped and shudder, with her eyes closed, Lacroix took this opportunity to bite his wrist. The blood would sate him until he could get back to the club._

Vachon and Nick stared at Lacroix, unable to process what he had just told them. Tracy had had sex with Lacroix, a murder suspect, a second time without alcohol or vampiric hypnosis. Angry and confused, Vachon was about to go off on Nick when a piercing scream cut through the air. Always the police officer, Nick followed it, Vachon and Lacroix behind him. Out on the street was a teenage girl, covered in blood and holding a bloodied butcher knife.

The girl was on her knees sobbing, the knife clutched in one hand. Nick reached for her but she screamed and slashed the knife at him.

"It's ok" Nick said backing away, he held his hands up to show he wasn't holding a weapon.

"I'm not going to hurt you, I'm a police officer."

"He wouldn't stop," she cried "I told him to stop, but he said he had paid my father for me! He wouldn't stop so I stopped him!"

The girl broke down into sobs and fell to the side; curling into a little ball on the sidewalk. Nick leaned down, his hand tentatively reaching for her. She made no attempt to stop him, she just lie there crying.

"What's your name?" he asked as he lightly touched her arm.

"Emily" she whispered.

"Alright Emily," Nick said, keeping his voice soothing and his movements non-threatening

" are you hurt? When you said he wouldn't stop, did he hurt you? Do you need to go to the hospital?"

The girl nodded, she was shaking now, her teeth chattering.

She's in shock, Nick thought.

"Emily?" Nick said "I need you to sit up so I can help you. You need to get warm. Emily?"

She nodded again and sat up, her arms shaking so badly she could hardly support her own weight. Nick took his suit jacket off and wrapped it around her shoulders.

Lacroix had been standing behind Nick the entire time; watching the scene unfold. He wasn't surprised at the way Nick handled the situation, he had always enjoyed the ego boost from playing the hero, even if the end result was the victim becoming dinner.

The sound of a siren echoed in the distance, someone had called the police. It was hard to tell who since a crowd had formed around them. Lacroix was starting to get annoyed at his sons work interfering with his business, first he had arrived a couple of months ago with an entire legion of police officers when Divia had reappeared and now he was going to be questioned again, his club most likely checked and his whereabouts questioned.

A squad car and ambulance arrived, Tracy not far behind them in her own car.

"Nick!" she called as she ran through the crowd to her partner " I got a call from Reese he said your car was here when the call went out and asked me to head over. What happened?"

"I saw her walking on the sidewalk covered in blood." he answered.

 _Not a lie, just omitted truth._

"Well the ambulance is here, they can take her to get checked at the hospital."

The paramedics came over and started checking the young girls blood pressure, asking her her name and if she had any known medical problems. She didn't respond to their questions, instead, she just continued to cry.

"Emily" Nick said soothingly, "you need to answer their questions so they can help you."

She reached for Nick, wrapped her arms around him and sobbed into his shoulder.

"Why don't I go to the hospital with her." Nick said to the paramedics.

They nodded, helped her onto a gurney and wheeled her towards the ambulance.

"Tracy!" He called back as climbed into the ambulance, "Could you get the witness statements?"

"Yeah" she called back, a little annoyed with being left behind, but still understanding of the situation.

Turning around, Tracy came face to face with Lucien Lacroix. He smirked at her and her face turned red.

"Mr. Lacroix," she said, collecting herself "is it just me or do situations like these seem to end up on your doorstep?"

"Well Detective, perhaps it will lead me to your doorstep again."

Tracy pursed her lips in agitation, trying very hard to keep her face from turning red and her body from turning on. She hated to admit it, but their night together had been a good one.

A low growl came from behind Lacroix, he didn't need to turn around to know the sound was coming from Vachon. While the younger vampire was angry at Lacroix for manipulating Tracy, the fact that Lacroix had been intimate with Tracy on a level he had not been bothered him more.

"Well Detective," Lacroix said, moving closer so his body could lightly brush hers, "I was in my club looking over the sales receipts of the night when I heard a scream."

Tracy stepped back, putting about a meter of distance between them.

" ," she said, annoyance filling her voice " a professional distance please. So you heard the scream. Then what?"

"I was concerned, so I came out to make sure there was no one injured or harmed."

"You were concerned?"

"Yes Detective Vetter, a crime scene could hinder my business."

Tracy rolled her eyes and directed him towards a uniformed police officer to fill out the official paperwork.

"What are you doing here" Tracy asked, focusing her attention on Vachon.

He nonchalantly pointed to the sign.

"Right" she said. "You're always here."

"Not always," Vachon said with a shrug, "Sometimes I'm at your place or at the church sleeping."

"Don't be a smart-ass."

He shrugged again.

"I thought you were off?" he asked

"I was," Tracy snapped, "I got called because my partner was on the scene!"

"So do you need to be here?" he asked, his voice taking on a soothing and concerned tone.

"No," she sighed "I don't."

"So why don't you let someone else take the statements and come over to my place and relax?"

Tracy smiled at that, she hadn't been to the church since Vachon had left. She hated to admit it, but she missed the place.

"Ok."

Walking over to a Sergeant, she informed them that she was off the clock and would be leaving. He shrugged and told her to have a good night. She and Vachon got into her car and drove the few miles to the church.

The dilapidated, old building was just as Tracy had remembered it. So where all the rooms, furniture and even cobwebs. Tracy walked down the stone steps, her hand on Vachon's shoulder. He led her to the couch and started lighting candles. After a few dozen were lit, he sat down across from her and picked-up a bottle of stale blood he had left sitting next to it.

"So," Vachon said "what did Lacroix mean by that?"

Tracy blushed and looked away, he would ask that.

"I was being stupid" she said, refusing to make eye contact, "I had had too much to drink. It happens."

That was all she was going to tell him. That was probably all she remembered. But Lacroix remembered it all, remembered the curve of her naked body, the smell of her blood as she climaxed. It made him incredibly jealous. He had been denied all of those things for months due to Knight! Worse,Lacroix had gotten to experience it per Knights request!

While it was obvious Knight hadn't known, it didn't change what had happened. Vachon moved forward and closed the distance between them. He moved his face just inches from hers and looked in her eyes; there were wide with surprise and uncertainty.

Vachon put his hands on her shoulder and gently turned her around. He pulled her back towards him and started rubbing her shoulders.

"You look tense." he said as she leaned into him and let him rub her sore and tired muscles.

For now, he thought, this will have to do.


	3. Chapter 3

Nick sat with Emily at the emergency room until just before dawn; she had been sedated and examined. When it was discovered her life was not in immediate danger, a rape kit was taken. They still didn't have her full name or even the body of the person she had claimed to kill, but, she showed obvious signs of sexual trauma, and her wounds were defensive. She would stay at the hospital for a few days for observation with a uniformed police officer outside her room, just in case.

Walking out to the parking garage, Nick saw Dr. Natalie Lambert pull-up in his cadillac. The top was down, and her dark blonde hair was lightly tousled from the breeze.

"Hey baby," she called "how much for the night?"

Walking around to the driver's side, Nick bent down over the door.

"I don't know if you could afford it." he teased, just before kissing her.

Smirking, Natalie popped the trunk and Nick climbed inside, not wanting to risk the sunburn if they hit early morning traffic. After pulling into the garage in his loft, Natalie let him out and rode the elevator up with him.

"Are you staying?" Nick asked, "Or just seeing me safely home?"

"Well, someone has to make sure your virtue stays in tact," she teased "Look at the way you're dressed, you're just asking for it."

Nick shook his head, and got off the elevator, quickly grabbing his remote, he closed the electronic blinds on his windows. Natalie walked over to the couch and laid down, pulling a blanket he kept draped over the back over her.

"Natalie?" Nick called as she started to drift off.

"Hmmm?"

"Vachon is alive and Tracy had sex with Lacroix."

Vachon was unsure of what to do, Tracy had fallen asleep during his massage, and while he didn't want to wake her, he really didn't want his first day out of the ground to be spent on a broken down couch. As the sun rose higher in the sky, exhaustion set in and he wanted to be in his soft bed. He considered slipping out from underneath Tracy and leaving her on the couch, but it was only March and the only blankets were on the bed.

 _Not that I need them._

Unless it was extreme, temperatures didn't bother vampires, but, a soft blanket always felt good. Seeing no other alternative, Vachon picked Tracy up and hurried them both to his bed, using his vampiric abilities to be as quick and soundless as possible. He laid her down on the left side of the bed (the right side was always his side) and covered them both in his pile of old comforters. A part of him wanted to pull her into him, keep her close for the day; but, waking-up in the arms of a man with no pulse might bother her, so, he decided against it. In the end he, carefully, pushed her further away and made sure he was on the edge of his side.

 _Make room for Jesus._

Smirking, Vachon drifted off to sleep.

Natalie stared at Nick, unable to process what he had just explained to her.

"Tracy and Lacroix." she said, for the fourth time, unable to believe it, while simultaneously trying not to picture it. "Twice."

"Yes," Nick confirmed, again. "And yes."

"Why," Natalie started, finally coming to terms with the fact that IT had happened, "would you ask Lacroix to hypnotize Tracy, when you didn't know how he would get around her strong will?"

"What?" Nick said, getting defensive "You're blaming me for this?"

"YES!" Natalie snapped. "You're the one who asked him to do it."

"How was I supposed to know what he would do?"

"ASK?"

Nick glowered at her, he hated admitting when he was wrong, especially when it was so obvious. With one of his dramatic flourishes, he turned away and sighed angrily.

"I'm gonna head home," Natalie said, not wanting to spend all day fighting sleep so she could fight with Nick.

"You're too tired to drive," Nick said, trying to hide his honest concern for her safety with indignation.

"I'll call a cab!" Natalie snapped as she pushed the button for the old freight elevator.

Nick knew he should stop her, letting her leave while she was still angry would only drag their fight out, but, he was just as tired as she was. After she left, he went to bed, and tried not to let his guilty conscious (and morbid curiosity) fill his dreams with visions of his partner and Master.

That evening, Nick met Tracy at their desks, she smiled at him; it was the first honestly happy smile she had given him in two months. He knew asking Lacroix to adjust Tracy's memories so she thought Vachon had left hadn't been a good idea, it was just easier for him to deal with. He thought if she had thought he had left, she would recover at work quicker, and he wouldn't have to feel guilty about letting her mourn Vachon's death alone. It had been foolish and selfish, and Nick could see that now, he just wasn't willing to admit it to Natalie yet.

"Hey partner," Tracy greeted him. "We have an ID on the girl from last night and we think we found her attacker."

Tracy handed Nick a manilla folder.

"Her name is Emily Johannsen, 13. Her father, Jacob Johannsen, is an art dealer. He claims to be legitimate, but, there's always been suspicion about some of his foreign connections."

"Suspicions?" Nick asked opening the file and pulling out a picture of Jacob.

"Some of them have ties to a few international drug cartels, but, there's never been enough evidence to formally charge him with anything."

"And the attacker?" Nick said, looking at a picture of a dead body, brutally stabbed.

"Neil Mason, a gallery owner and known coke dealer. He was half naked when they found him, and the medical examiner said it looks like he was engaged in sexual activity at the time."

"DNA a match to Emily's rape kit?"

Tracy shook her head.

"We won't know for a couple more days."

Nick nodded, and set the folder down.

"Emily said her father sold her to Mason," Nick said, "she said the man she stabbed had told her he paid her father for her. But, if Johannsen is an art dealer with ties to drug smugglers, why do that? Why does he need the money?"

"Maybe he has habit" Tracy put in, "and it was interfering with his business, so he used his daughter to settle some of his debts. Mason was accused of molesting a young girl a few years ago, but, his attorney offered an undisclosed sum to the family and charges were never filed."

"So," Nick said. "Do we think maybe Johannsen is supposed to be helping smuggle drugs but his own habit gets in the way, he ends up owing money to Mason, who has a thing for younger girls, so, Johannsen offers his thirteen year old daughter as payment?"

"That's what the evidence seems to point to."

Nick and Tracy looked at each other, without saying a word, they headed to Nick's car to bring Jacob Johannsen in for questioning.


End file.
